Above, a single lady with Reeses Pieces Chocolate Frosting.
Single Lady Cupcake
(makes a single serving cupcake)
- 3 tbsp flour (30g) (See directions for flour notes)
- heaping 1/16th tsp salt
- 1 tbsp applesauce, oil, pre-melted margarine (such as Earth Balance or Smart Balance Light), or a combination
- 1 tbsp plus 1 tsp liquid (milk of choice or water)
- 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp baking powder
- Sweetener (I hate giving specific amounts, since tastebuds are so different. For normal tastebuds, 1 to 1 and 1/2 tbsp of sugar, or 1 to 1 1/2 packets of stevia should be about right. If you use liquid sweetener, cut back a tiny bit on the other liquid.)
Directions: Preheat the oven to 330 degrees. Mix the ingredients and pour into an oiled (or sprayed) muffin pan. Smooth top of batter. Cook for 12-15ish minutes. Alternatively, you can cook in the microwave, in a greased mug or ramekin. (Microwave times will vary, depending on the flour you use and the strength of your microwave.
Notes on flour: If you use whole-wheat pastry or spelt flour for cupcakes, you’ll get a denser (more muffin-like) cake. Still delicious! White flour and Bob’s gluten-free also work. I wouldn’t recommend plain whole-wheat flour. (Also, be warned if you’ve never done fat-free baking: subbing all the oil in a recipe for applesauce will give you a gummier result. Once again, still delicious, but much denser than your traditional cupcake with oil.)
Nutrition Info:
- Calories: 110
- Fat: 0.5 g
- Protein: 4 g
- Carbohydrates: 23 g
- Fiber: 4 g
- ww points (new system): 3
(Add 100 calories if you use the tbsp of oil as opposed to the applesauce version.)
Above, with cinnamon and my Healthy Cream Cheese Frosting.
So basically, the cupcake became a Cinnamon Roll Cupcake. I have many more ideas for future cupcakes. It’s really fun dealing with one at a time. They’re so quick to make that you can measure ingredients in separate bowls and add different mix-ins to each bowl. One chocolate-chip cupcake, one pumpkin, one carrot cake… you get the idea.
I’m making one now, and the batter tasted great, but my cooking time seems to be off. i’ve put it in at 350 for 18 minutes and it’s still gooey when i poke it 🙁
it came out perfectly after 18 minutes for me. maybe because i used all applesauce, no oil. but this is portioned perfectly for one cupcake and looks great! can’t wait to taste 🙂
Thanks so much for this great recipe, Katie! I can’t tell you how many we’ve made in the past month since I found the recipe… and we call them “KatieCakes” for fun 🙂
My variation is to double the batter and microwave it in 2 ramekins, then brush/soak each layer with brewed coffee. Frost with a cream cheese-type frosting and sprinkle with cocoa–it’s a tiramisu!
I doubled the recipe and made little fairy buns with cinnamon/xylitol and coconut butter icing – they were so lovely! Thanks, Katie! I’m a huge fan of yours <3
That first photo with the black backdrop is just … gorgeous … big wow factor. Clearly, I’m kind of lost for words. 🙂 Thanks for the inspiration!
I made this recipe for a single serving cupcake and wrote about it here. Wow. What a dangerously delicious recipe. Thanks for posting and sharing!
I love your blog & am looking forward
to the cookbook. I’ve made several of your
recipes with great success. Tried the single lady cupcake & topped with biscoff spread for frosting. Btw would welcome a large portion version I think these could be the base for my valentine cupcakes. The cake was flavorful and had a good crumb but it took almost 22 mins in the oven @ 350. I also had a similar experience with banana bread muffin. Will try next time with the applesauce instead of earth balance. As I need to lose weight but won’t make it without the occasional sweet treat.
I used Bobs stone ground 100% whole wheat flour and it came out great! Just took about 5 more minutes to bake.
I tried making these twice tonight, and both times they rose A LOT but just wouldn’t cook through. I even tried baking for 30 minutes, and they hardly browned on top…so weird 🙁
I just made these with gluten free flour (Bob’s) and it was a success! I’ve been vegan a while but am new to gluten free and hadn’t tried a vanilla/yellow cake recipe yet. I was really worried that without chocolate, the beany flavor of the Bob’s flour would be detectable but these cupcakes had a very strong vanilla flavor that masked it (for me). I doubled the recipe and made 6 mini cupcakes, and I just realized I didn’t double the sugar (I used about 1.5 tbsp organic cane sugar, which was actually plenty sweet). Only thing I’d like to improve next time is they were a little dry. I did use oil rather than applesauce. Any tips?